


A Line Crossed

by Clevinger



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Gore, F/F, Gen, Good Parent Eda Clawthorne, Hurt/Comfort, Lumity, Luz Noceda Angst, Major Character Injury, Mourning, Necromancy, Panic Attacks, Spoilers for Episode: s01e18 Agony of a Witch, Violence, Zombie Luz AU, accidental murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26160400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clevinger/pseuds/Clevinger
Summary: During their witches' duel, Eda continues to show up and humiliate Lilith at every turn. Determined to finally overcome her sister, Lilith goes too far and hurts Eda in a way neither had anticipated.(An alternate take on Agony of a Witch's final duel, where Lilith accidentally kills Luz.)
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 192
Kudos: 1197
Collections: All things Disney, Eda and Luz are family





	1. Fatal Mistake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story concept came to me about a day after watching Agony of a Witch. That magical tug-of-war with Luz over those spikes seemed awfully dangerous. One false move could have taken the witches' duel in a far darker direction.
> 
> So, this is an adaption of that idea. Be warned, this does get a bit graphic at times. I couldn't tell whether it qualified for a T or M rating, so I made it M just in case. It doesn't have over-the-top blood and guts, just references to bad injuries and wounds that a certain character experiences. Oh, and angst. Lots and lots of angst.

It was amazing how badly words could hurt. Even when locked in a vicious witch’s duel with her sister, Lilith’s injuries were nothing compared to how shaken and thrashed her ego had become. Eda might have been one of the most powerful witches in the Boiling Isle, but she had a greater talent for tearing people down. It was like she knew how to see into a person’s soul, find whatever holes she could, and make them even bigger.

" _How pathetic are you that you can’t best me at my worst?”_

_"You became a lapdog for a tyrant!”_

_"I **am** better than you!”_

Every insult, every slight tore into her deeper. She could never best Eda, could she? Not at magic, not at grudgby, not even at winning people’s respect. She was always second best.

The very thought made her blood boil. In that moment of blind rage, she blurted out the only thing she could hold over her sister – that she had cursed her, robbed her of her fullest potential. She had been the architect of Eda’s suffering, and no one had been the wiser.

Well, until _now_.

She immediately regretted her choice of words, but it was too late to take them back. Her attempts to calm Eda down and win her over fell on deaf ears. Before she could react, her sister slammed her with a full-force magical blast, crashing her against the walls of Emperor Belos’s castle. If not for the various enchantments protecting her, an attack like that would have left her broken and crippled.

What should have been a humbling moment only fueled her anger further. It wasn’t _fair!_ She had to work so hard to master her abilities! It had taken ages to win her place atop the Emperor’s Coven! So why was her sister, some wild witch living out in the sticks, always coming out on top compared to her? Why couldn’t she just _win_ for once?

Her connection to the magical bubble around the human was abruptly severed. Luz, or whatever Eda called her, ran between them and begged Eda to stop the fight.

Lilith’s outward composure was hanging on by a thread. First the humiliation, and now this pity? And from an outsider, no less? It was just too much. She no longer cared what Eda or their audience inside the castle would think of her. She needed to settle the score with her sister…and she knew how to force Eda’s hand.

Her lips curled into a contemptuous smile. “Human, that orb was for your protection.”

A quick turn of her staff sent Luz hurtling off the bridge they had been fighting on. It stood perilously high above a valley of spikes and jagged rocks, formed specifically to protect the castle from invaders. If the height didn’t kill whoever fell in, the sheer number of sharp edges would finish the job.

As Lilith had expected, Eda’s parental instincts kicked in. Her magic enveloped Luz, catching her just before she was impaled on the spikes below. Eda struggled to lift the girl, her pendant growing darker each moment.

“Eda, stop!” Luz cried. “Your magic!”

“It’s my power, kid, and before you came along, I was wasting it.”

Lilith saw her chance to act. Concentrating her energy, she pressed down on Eda’s barrier with a magical force of her own. Already taxed by the curse and the fight, Eda visibly exerted herself keeping Luz aloft. Lilith watched from the air with smug satisfaction as her sister’s powers waned. Finally, she had the upper hand.

It wouldn’t take much else to make the curse completely overtake Eda. A little more of this balancing act would push her over the edge. Determined to have her revenge, Lilith shoved down harder with her own barrier.

A yellow light flickered out of existence. Where there was once an upward force stood nothing. All that remained was a wave of cold blue energy pushing downward, empowered by her withheld jealousy and resentment.

There was no time to take back her mistake.

A sharp scream was cut short, followed by a weak, agonized gurgle. Lilith blinked, suddenly snapped out of her one-track obsession with besting Eda. She glanced at the spikes below the bridge. A breath caught in her throat just as bile rose into her mouth.

She didn’t want to take another look. Not at what she had done. Not at the grisly aftermath of her “master plan” to bring Eda to heel.

Lilith saw her sister recoil as if she had been stabbed. In an instant, Eda was on her staff and flying down to the human. With the atmosphere having gotten deathly silent, she could hear her sister’s faint pleas of “no, no, no.” Eda cradled the child in her arms, ignoring the red stains that flowed down her maroon dress and pale limbs. It might have been a trick of her vision, but it almost looked like Luz had tried to say something to Eda before going limp.

Lilith’s breaths were quick and unfocused. It was like a cold hand had clamped around her heart and refused to let go.

Their audience within the castle was quickly disappearing. With all the dangers plaguing the Boiling Isles, people got used to death. Half-hearted advice was often exchanged about the line between living and dying being one slitherbeast attack away. Even parents had to accept the risks of sending their children to schools for witches. Of course, none of that actually prepared people for seeing death up close, much less the death of a child.

Frantically, Eda laid her protégé’s corpse on a flat plane of the bridge. She tried everything she could: healing spells, awakening charms, and other types of restoration magic she had mastered. Nothing fixed the holes sliced through Luz’s chest, or the gaping wound that had taken one of her eyes. By the end, Eda was uselessly pounding her fists on the human and begging Luz not to leave her.

It was too much for Lilith. She needed to do… _something_ , not just float over the spectacle like she hadn’t been the reason for it. Landing on the bridge, she cautiously approached her sister.

Eda’s head immediately snapped to face her, revealing every detail to Lilith. Her golden eyes had taken on a red hue. Tears freely flowed down her face. Sobs actively shook her body.

“Sister, I-”

Lilith hadn’t been ready for Eda to charge into her with a burst of magic, nearly cracking her ribs from the impact alone. Before she could throw up any defenses, Eda pelted her with bolts of fire, and closed the gap with an animalistic scream.

She tried to knock her sister back with a concussive blast, but Eda furiously pried the staff loose from her fingers and tossed it into the pit. Then the blows came, one after another. There was no magic or supernatural force supporting them. They weren’t enhanced by some mystical artifact. It was just Eda’s fists crashing into Lilith, one hand holding her cloak and the other bludgeoning her face. When she fell onto her back, Eda followed her down and swung at her again and again.

When Lilith tried fighting back or pushing her sister off her, Eda only twisted her arm back and struck her harder. She was still crying even while pummeling Lilith into oblivion.

How long the beatdown lasted was beyond Lilith. All she knew was that, at some point, Eda got off her and dropped to her knees. Her bloodcurdling wail filled the air.

Everything ached for Lilith. Her vision was blurry, her head pounded with agony, and her body was weak from the fight. She could barely raise herself onto her knees without collapsing. She already knew that her appearance was in shambles – in all likelihood, her face was a mess of nasty bruises and cuts, and her clothes were probably stained from the human residue still dripping from Eda.

“Why?”

Eda’s sobs continued to wrack her entire body. She no longer looked like the fearsome owl lady with a massive bounty on her head. If anything, she seemed to Lilith like a mother uncontrollably mourning her child.

Lilith tasted copper in her mouth. “Why _what_ , Eda?”

“ _Why would you do that?_ ” Eda practically screamed. “She was never a part of this! She hadn’t hurt you or anyone from the Coven! This was always about me falling in line! You didn’t…have to…”

Eda appeared to choke on her next words. It didn’t take a fortune teller to predict what she had wanted to say.

 _You didn’t have to kill her_.

“I didn’t mean to,” Lilith weakly said in her defense, knowing full well how pathetic that sounded. “I just wanted you to wear yourself down. I thought that…if I made you use up your magic, I could sweep in and capture you. That was all I wanted to do, just show you up for once.”

Eda’s expressions flashed between rage and sorrow, before settling on disgust. Her pendant was almost entirely filled with black now. “Well, you did it,” she sneered. “You hurt me in a way that’d never work on you. How does it make you feel, _hero?_ ”

Like a murderer. Like a rotten, immoral criminal who used children to get an edge on her old rival.

“I’m sorry.”

Eda grabbed Lilith by the collar and dragged her close, tear-stained face to bruised face. “I don’t your apologies, sister! I want…” She let go, her head hanging in remorse. “I want my Luz back,” she whimpered.

Lilith could do nothing while Eda walked away and scooped up her precious human’s body in her arms. Eda held her close like the child she always wanted. Lilith was too weak to offer any resistance as her sister hopped on her staff, Luz’s body clutched tightly against hers. Options ran through her head – call for backup, summon her own staff and try to capture Eda again, disorient Eda long enough to get help – but she couldn’t bring herself to act on them. She had caused enough misery as it was, and she worried that trying to stop Eda would only make things worse.

Refusing to back down from a challenge had left a teenage girl dead. She refused to go down that same road again, not when it had left her beaten and ashamed.

“Don’t even think of following me,” Eda snarled to her sister. “If you or any of Emperor Belos’s stooges come after me, I promise that I’ll burn this place to the ground. You can take my word for it.”

Lilith believed her sister completely. Eda was a powerful woman by herself, but she was a truly dangerous foe when she had nothing left to lose. Picking a fight with her at a time like this was nothing short of a death sentence.

She watched Eda fly off into the red-tinted skies of the evening. Triumph had eluded both Clawthorne sisters in that battle. Lilith felt no satisfaction in taking Luz away from Eda. That wasn’t the plan, that had never _been_ the plan, but it didn’t matter. The results of her scheme spoke for themselves.

Even with cool night air chilling her, Lilith didn’t move from her solitary spot on the bridge. She ran the fight through her head in as many ways as she could, wondering how she should have handled it or what she could have done to bring Eda in peacefully.

All she was doing was staving off the inevitable. Sooner or later, she would have to drag her wounded carcass back into the castle and explain herself to the Emperor. Eda had slipped through her grasp once again, despite the deck being so heavily stacked in her favor. There would be no kind words or second chances extended to her that night. She knew that she would be treated harshly…and some part of her felt that she deserved it.

Emperor Belos would be furious no matter how early or late she arrived at his throne. This one time, Lilith decided she would wait a little longer to make that trip. She needed time to collect herself.

No, not just that. Before facing the consequences awaiting her, she wanted to mourn an innocent life lost.


	2. My Heart's Gravedigger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't originally planned to cover this POV, but a commenter brought up how Amity would react to the news. It would be a disservice to ignore Amity's perspective on the tragedy. One more stop has been added to the angst train!

“I’m not telling her; you tell her.”

“Last time there was bad news, I had to break it to Mittens. Now it’s your turn.”

“That is _completely_ different than this. First off-”

Amity buried her head beneath a pillow, hoping to block out her twins’ annoying bickering outside her room. They were carrying on as if she hadn’t heard them already. This was in spite the house’s walls being thin, and not to mention, her door being wide open. She could see a glimpse of Emira’s green hair through the doorway.

She had spent the past few days in bed after injuring her leg in a grudgby game. Resting and recovering meant missing school and, more unfortunately, the field trip to Emperor Belos’s castle. She had been looking forward to it since it had been first announced. It could have been a chance to meet Lilith again, which she had been rearing to do since that Covention incident. Plus, it could have a good opportunity to see the relics kept by the Emperor’s Coven.

On the plus side, getting injured meant that Luz got to carry her to the nurse’s office in her no-longer-scrawny nerd arms. Her face turned beet red just thinking about it, and she pressed down harder with the pillow to muffle her squeal of delight.

Thinking of Luz conjured up so many complicated feelings within Amity. She liked her commitment to the magical arts and creativity with casting spells. She appreciated her dedication to her friends, even ones like her who had left an awful first impression with her. She admired Luz for risking her life for Amity on several occasions, the most recent being the Grom Queen showdown. Oh, and she was cute. Amity couldn’t forget that part.

Amity couldn’t tell when it had happened, but Luz had become something more than a friend to her. She had almost confessed this to her during Grom Night, but had gotten cold feet before coming clean. With any luck, this time spent by herself would help Amity work up the nerve to share her true feelings with Luz.

“-Okay, we’re settling this the old-fashioned way – with a duel.”

“What are we gonna use? Magic, swords, staffs…banjos?”

“No, not the last one. You know Mom and Dad would freak out if they saw another-”

Alright, Amity had run out of patience. Her twin siblings would spend all day loitering outside her room until they told her whatever they needed to tell her. Tossing her pillow aside, Amity sat up on her bed and loudly cleared her throat.

“You know I can hear you, right?” she irritably said. “Just come in. I don’t care who says what as long as _someone_ catches me up to speed.”

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Edric and Emira shuffled into Amity’s room. They wore their typically amused smiles, but they looked more forced and strained than usual. A palpable tension hung in the air between them.

Edric’s eyes wandered to Amity’s poster of Lilith, and he unmistakably flinched at the sight of it. It was brief, but Amity had caught the moment before her brother could compose himself again. Pretty strange, she had to admit.

“So…what’s this all about?” Amity asked.

Her brother and sister exchanged concerned glances. Their good-spirited expressions melted away. They almost looked…sad?

Edric let out a heavy sigh. “You haven’t heard about the field trip, have you?”

What kind of question was that? Of course she knew about the trip to the Emperor’s Castle! She had been the one to gush about it to her twins in the first place!

“It sounded pretty normal to me. The Emperor’s Coven gave Hexside a tour of the castle grounds. Did Lilith show up or something?”

Both of her siblings grimaced in discomfort. Emira crossed one arm over her chest, while Edric fixated on a fallen book beside her bed.

“Could _someone_ tell me what’s going on?” Amity finally snapped at them.

The twins shared another look. Nodding at each other, the two sat on opposite sides of Amity’s bed. Emira sat closer to her younger sister. Gently, she rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Amity…during the trip, something happened.”

The twins, still visibly uncomfortable with what they were doing, began filling in the missing details about the trip. A picture gradually formed in Amity’s head, one that became grimmer with every new fact revealed.

A battle outside Emperor Belos’s Castle. A duel between witches with a third party caught in the middle. Lilith. Eda. Luz. A power struggle gone horribly wrong.

Her palms became slick with sweat. Her hands shook with nervous, terrified energy. Her vision blurred just as her cheeks became wet. The next breath she took was sharp and strained.

_No no no no no no no no no…_

“Mittens?” Edric quietly spoke up. “It’s okay if-”

He never finished what he had to say. Amity screamed, part-enraged and part-devastated by the news. Her thoughts were a wreck of heartache and half-baked revenge scenarios against Lilith. She had looked up to her! She had trusted her! All that faith put in her, and how did she repay Amity? By taking away…by killing…

She couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought.

Edric and Emira tried to hold her back as she tore down the poster of Lilith from her wall. Their pleas for her to calm down and not lose control went ignored as she unleashed a flurry of destructive spells at her former mentor’s image. The poster quickly burned to ashes. If not for her twins’ quick thinking, the flames would have spread throughout her room.

Amity wanted to fly over to that castle and wring Lilith’s neck. She might have done it, if her siblings weren’t actively trying to keep her from doing anything reckless.

“Let go of me!” she shrieked at them.

“Amity, there’s nothing we can do!” Emira told her. “Nobody knows what happened to Lilith, and you’re in no condition to go after her anyway!”

“She can’t get away with this!”

“She won’t!” Edric insisted. “You know the Emperor’s Coven won’t let her shrug this off! But losing your cool won’t make this any better! It won’t bring Luz back!”

Faced with the terrifying truth of what had happened, Amity finally stopped struggling against her twins. She looked up at them, no longer hiding how much she was weeping.

Amid her sobbing, Amity whimpered out, “I never got to tell her how I feel. I…I…”

The dam holding back her despair finally burst. Wailing, she buried her head against her brother’s chest. Both of her twins protectively embraced her as she cried. Her outburst carried throughout the halls of the Blight Estate. It was fortunate that her parents weren’t around to see her lose her composure over some human girl.

They never would have understood her sorrow. Luz wasn’t just an oddball student with a penchant for getting into misadventures. She was so much more to Amity – more than an acquaintance or friend, someone who had secured an important place in her heart.

Amity would never get the chance to tell Luz that she loved her.

Angry at the world for taking her love away from her, at Lilith for sacrificing Luz over some petty feud, and at herself for getting so attached to someone so vulnerable, Amity wept remorsefully. She clutched her brother tightly, holding him close until exhaustion overtook her. She barely registered Emira easing her back into bed or Edric rolling a blanket over her.

Sleep came to her gently and mercifully. At least Luz would still be there in her dreams.


	3. Desperate Needs, Desperate Deeds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a forewarning, parts of this chapter can get a little squick-y. Still no over-the-top gore, but there are moments of surgery, stitching, and necromantic magic in action.

Eda hit the ground running as she landed in front of the Owl House, nearly stumbling as she hefted Luz’s body off her staff. Dust kicked up around her rough landing. Above her home, dark storm clouds swirled and shifted ominously. Her chest was tight from the exertion and even tighter from the horrific tragedy she had left behind.

Now wasn’t the time to let her emotions overwhelm her, though. It was a long shot, but Eda believed that she still had one – and only one – chance at making things right.

Hooty promptly stretched over to greet Eda, only for her to frantically swat him away. She didn’t have time to play games with him. Tonight, every second would be a matter of life or death.

“ _Sheesh_ , way to treat a well-wisher!” Hooty whined. “And here I thought Luz had won a ketchup fight for your freedom!”

Eda kicked open the door, ignoring Hooty’s disgruntled shout. “No time to explain! Hooty, I need organs. The closer they are to human ones, the better, but we’re on the clock here! Bring over as many as you can grab within a few minutes!”

“You can count on me! Hoot hoot!”

Hooty zoomed off into the distance, nonchalantly tearing through gravel and trees on his morbid hunt. She swiped aside the assortment of human artifacts on her coffee table and gently rested Luz’s body on it. It pained Eda to see the girl like that, especially with her terror-filled eyes still wide open. Shakily, she lowered Luz’s eyelids, making her corpse seem at least a little more at peace.

Her concentration broke when King burst from that large cake he had been preparing.

“Surprise! How’d it go with…” He trailed off as the grim sight in front of him became clear. “…What happened to Luz?” he fearfully asked.

Eda grunted in frustration. “Nothing I can’t fix. King, get me needles, string, a clean rag, and plenty of water. After that, bring out that book hidden under the kitchen floorboards. I’ve got to get Luz prepared before this storm passes.”

King dashed off to retrieve the needed supplies, leaving Eda to ready herself for the strenuous task ahead. She downed two bottles of elixir in a row, shivering from their combined purifying power. She would need a clear head and total control of her powers for what she was about to do.

Technically speaking, there were no laws against necromancy in the Boiling Isles. However, the practice was not included in the teachings of any coven approved by Emperor Belos. Books detailing how to raise the dead had gone out of print, and most witches growing up under his rule never learned how to master that dark art. Over the years, it had become a lost technique that few remembered how to perform.

Eda wasn’t much on rules or staying within the limits of covens, so she felt no shame in bracing herself for a resurrection spell. Besides, her duel with Lilith had struck down Luz. She owed it to her apprentice to give her a second shot at life.

Before long, King returned with the items she needed, and she began her work. Eda cracked open the dusty spell tome and flipped to the section on raising the dead. The self-proclaimed “king of demons” sat close by while she cleaned the dried blood and grime off Luz’s wounds, clasping and unclasping his paws in a nervous tic.

“Hoot hoot! Did someone call for an organ donor?”

That was all the warning Hooty gave before vomiting a half-dozen organs onto the Owl House’s floor. Eda sifted through the moist collection of parts, pleased with most of the selection. They weren’t perfect, but they would do the trick.

“Don’t you wanna hear how I got them?” Hooty playfully asked.

“No,” Eda flatly responded, ready to slam the door on the owl demon.

“Are you _suuure?_ Because the part with the one-armed man was really-”

Eda closed the door, cutting off whatever riveting story Hooty had wanted to share with her. She would have other times to swap stories with him. For now, Luz needed all of her attention.

King flinched a little as Eda laid out the different organs beside the body. “Luz is gonna be okay…right?”

“I’ll do everything I can to get her back on her feet.” She spared a moment to give him a reassuring pat on the head. “After all, us weirdos have to stick together. Now sit still – I need to focus here.”

Opening up Luz’s corpse would have made most other witches gag, but Eda had been desensitized to blood and guts from her stint as a graverobber. To her, she was just inspecting meat and discarding whatever couldn’t be used. The punctured heart? Too damaged to heal; a few quick incisions cut it loose from her system. The half-destroyed liver? It joined her heart in a bucket beside the coffee table. The missing eye was a no-brainer; all she had to do was clear out the broken skull fragments to make room for a new one.

Although Eda had to be quick with her cuts, she made sure to be as precise as time allowed. She didn’t want to do a sloppy job and risk bringing back Luz in a body that would fall apart in a week. However, she didn’t hesitate to slice into the girl. It wasn’t pleasant cutting up someone she held so dear, but time was of the essence. If she didn’t get this spell started soon, it would be tougher to pull Luz’s soul back into her body…and there was a risk that something _else_ might end up there instead.

One by one, she inspected each fresh organ and decided how to alter them as needed. Hooty had brought back an eclectic mix of body parts. First was the heart of a berserker gorilla – too big to fit into Luz’s chest, so Eda shrunk it down and reattached to the right veins and valves. It was a shame that he hadn’t found a witch’s heart…this could’ve been Luz’s chance to try out the traditional way of performing magic.

A loud clap of thunder startled her out of her fantasy. She couldn’t stand around daydreaming, Eda reminded herself. She had to make do with what was in front of her.

Next on her list was the liver of a snaggleback. It took a bit of reshaping to make it match Luz’s, but it ultimately ended up looking the part. All Eda could do now was hope that it would function the same way.

The last two replacements were the skin and eye of a witch. Eda looked them over carefully, not noticing any signs of rot setting in. They would fit easily into Luz, but the downside was that they didn’t match her coloring. The skin was paler than Luz’s, and the eye was green instead of brown. Unfortunately, Eda couldn’t afford to be picky now. She eased the new eye into the empty socket and sewn the replacement skin where Luz lacked any.

Quickly and thoroughly, Eda stitched Luz’s body back together. Discolored skin and mismatched eye aside, Luz didn’t look half-bad for someone who had been impaled less than a day ago. She worked the girl into a gown so she wouldn’t have to keep wearing her bloodstained clothes.

Eda stretched her arms wide, holding her hands toward the ceiling while drawing two spell circles. “King, stay back. I’m going to need room for this part.”

King retreated behind the couch, half of his bony head peaking around its corner. The living room glowed and flickered with the sudden surge of magical energy. Half of Eda was pinging the spectral world for signs of Luz, while the other half drew power from the storm and concentrated it over the Owl House. Luz’s body might have been repaired, but there were still two more steps to bringing her back: returning her spirit to her body and restarting her heart.

Eda closed her eyes, concentrating deeper on her memories of Luz. She thought of the girl’s laughter, of her love for adventure and fascination with magic. She prodded the invisible world of the afterlife with those memories, holding out hope that one of those anonymous souls would recognize them. It was like fishing, only you couldn’t see the water or any of the sea life below the surface. Whatever realm existed beyond death didn’t like giving up its secrets.

That was when she felt it. A tug, a hint of a reaction from whatever soul had come across Eda’s memories. It wasn’t much to go on, but the owl lady was desperate. With as much power as she could muster, she yanked at the presence, dragging it into the empty vessel that was Luz’s body.

Thunder crackled around the house. Normally, there would be barriers in place protecting it from blistering rain and other bad weather, but Eda deliberately left it unprotected that night. If her plan was to succeed, she needed lightning to come through unrestrained.

As Eda focused harder on channeling the storm’s power, she felt the lingering effects of the curse crawl around the edges of her pendant. It was risky to keep using her abilities at full force, but she refused to let Luz slip through her fingers again. She gritted her teeth and ignored the sweat building up along her arms. Now was the time to dig deep and give everything she had.

The first bolt of lightning struck the shores beside the Owl House. Grumbling under her breath, Eda took hold of the augmented storm clouds and unleashed another strike, this one frying the grass close to Hooty. She was getting closer, all she needed to do was fine-tune her aim.

Over the noise of the storm, King shouted, “I’d hate to say, ‘I told you so,’ but we really should’ve bought that skylight!”

“I know, I know!” Eda said. “You can rub it in my face later!”

With a skyward shout, she called down lightning onto the house itself. It smashed apart the roof, exposing the living room to the elements and clearing a path straight to Luz.

“Just a little longer, kiddo…”

Another electrical bolt shot through the gap and into Luz, raising the hairs on her body and briefly jolting her body into the air. The aura hanging over her was charged with power. Eda waited for the corpse to react further.

Half a minute later, nothing had changed. Eda frantically shocked Luz with a second bolt. She shook violently again, but otherwise remained still.

“Come on, get up,” Eda muttered in desperation. A third blast struck the corpse with the same results.

“You’re gonna fry her if you keep this up!” King said.

“But if I stop now, we’ll _never_ get Luz back!” Eda cried. “I have to do this!”

A fourth came down, then a fifth. Eda’s pendant was half-filled with darkness from her efforts. Panting from fatigue, she missed the next bolt by a few hundred feet. Eda was ready to scream in frustration.

“Luz, I can’t keep doing this,” she said, practically begging for things to go right. “Please, you have to wake up! This isn’t just about me or King – you’ve made a difference to so many people! Think of how your friends would miss you, or how your mom back home would feel about losing you!” A few stray tears escaped her eyes. “You don’t know how much you’re loved. This place would never be the same without you…”

With her remaining strength, Eda called down one more lightning strike on Luz’s body. No longer able to maintain the storm surge, the clouds overhead began to lighten up. The hail of nearby lightning was reduced to an occasional clap of thunder far in the distance.

An unearthly quiet settled over the Owl House. Neither Eda nor King dared break the silence. Cautiously, King emerged from behind the couch, taking his place beside a heavy-breathing Eda. Around the house, all that could be heard were the chittering of bugs and the distant calls of various demons. Eda nearly buckled over from tiredness, and she steadied herself on the couch.

A shrill scream disrupted the once-peaceful scene.

The body atop Eda’s coffee table sprang up. Its first movements were frantic and erratic. As its arms and legs jolted abruptly, it fell onto the floor and clutched itself tightly.

Eda’s heart skipped a beat. She rushed to take the girl in her arms. “Luz! Luz, can you hear me?”

The girl’s brown and green eyes struggled to focus on the witch in front of her. A long, uneven gasp escaped her lips.

“Eda? Is…is that you?”

The voice that came out sounded deeper and layered, as if two people were speaking at once. Luz immediately covered her mouth. She looked down at her hands, her eyes following the stitches along her body. Luz gasped again upon seeing her reflection in the windowpane. Her fingers traced the divide along the new skin surrounding her green eye.

“What _happened_ to me?” was all the girl could say.

Eda didn’t hesitate to scoop the girl into that “arms around another person” thing – a hug, or whatever it was called. She held her now-living apprentice close, shaking with relief that her efforts hadn’t been for nothing. King scampered onto her shoulders and hugged Luz as well.

She comfortingly ran circles along Luz’s back. The girl had come back disoriented and frightened, sure, but what mattered was that she had returned in the first place. The hole in Eda’s soul felt filled once more.

“I’ll tell you everything soon enough. For the time being…just know that you were gone, but now you’re back.” Eda cooed at her protégé. “You’re safe with us, and that will never change. No matter what you’ve become, you’ll always be welcome at my home.”


	4. I Won't Breathe Until You Do

It was taking Luz some time to adjust to her new life being…well, technically dead. Living dead, as Eda had put it. The Owl Lady had brought her back to life, repairing her body with magic and whatever spare parts she could find. It explained a few oddities she was experiencing, like Luz now being able to hold her breath much longer, or her having the strength to accidentally rip a cabinet door off its hinges. Apparently, she would have to be extra careful around Eda’s merchandise now.

“I know it’s strange being a zombie,” King told her, “but look at this way: you have a gorilla’s heart now! Isn’t that what every kid wants?”

Luz clutched her chest self-consciously. She could feel the powerful pulsing of her new heart underneath her flesh and bones. “Not where I’m from,” she responded. Her layered, ethereal voice still spooked her a little.

King blinked in confusion. “Man, humans are _weird_ ,” was all he said before marching off to grab them some snacks.

That was another thing she had to adjust to: a new diet. One thing that human movies had gotten right about the undead was their hunger for brains. Normal food wouldn’t give her the nutrition she needed as a zombie. She would either have to chow down on some gray matter…or, as Eda had suggested, eat things that her body would _interpret_ as brains.

In keeping with this, King returned from the kitchen with an odd assortment of food, sitting beside her under the hastily repaired roof. There were chips and cupcakes for him, and on a separate plate for Luz, there were raisins, bran muffins, and some wrinkled tomatoes.

“Trust me, kiddo, I’ve had my fair share of run-ins with the walking dead,” Eda reassured her, patting the younger girl on the shoulder. “As long as it looks like a brain, they’ll gladly gobble it up. It shouldn’t be any different for you.”

King and Eda sat on both sides of Luz while she took a muffin in her hand. She twisted it around in her hand, taking in the shape and feel of it. She hadn’t made the comparison before, but she could see what Eda was talking about – it did kind of look like a brain!

The realization made some unseen switch in her mind flip on.

_Sustenance._

Luz voraciously bit into the bran muffin, tearing chunks out of it that scattered around the plate. She devoured it with both of her hands, giving no thought to table manners. Before she knew it, the snack had been reduced to crumbs in her open hands.

Her hunger felt satisfied. Involuntarily, she let out a satisfied belch.

“That was something else,” Luz commented, still not sure what to make of her new situation.

King laughed in amazement, saying, “I never thought eating a muffin could look so scary! Geez, Luz, you tore that thing apart!”

Luz winced at his remark. Almost immediately, he waved his paws emphatically and said, “Not that it’s a bad thing, of course! The way you destroyed that muffin was super cool! If we ever have to fight an evil bakery, I’m putting you in charge of eating up its bread battalions!”

The image made her chuckle. “Thanks, King,” she murmured. A faint smile crept up on her lips, but her eyes were averted from either of her companions.

Luz still didn’t know how she felt about the new life she had been given. She couldn’t remember anything after she had fallen into the spikes or before Eda’s magic had brought her back. She was grateful to be alive, but she hadn’t been prepared for such a strange shift in the way she would have to handle herself. To think, all she had wanted to do was stop a fight between Eda and her sister…

She wondered how Willow and Gus would react to the news. She was sure they would be thrilled to find her alive, but she couldn’t predict how they would react to what she had become. Would Hexside even let her remain enrolled while she was undead? And what about Amity? What would she have to say about Luz’s mismatched eyes, blotchy skin, or weird new behaviors?

And then there was her mother. So much time had been spent on the Boiling Isles that she had forgotten about her eventual return to the human world. _Could_ she come back home as a zombie? Would she even want to? How would her mother react to finding out that her daughter had turned into a…a monster?

Her thoughts were spiraling out of control. She needed air, she needed space to think, she needed-

-Eda’s arms were around her in an instant. The witch pressed her hyperventilating apprentice against her chest, rubbing her hair in slow, soothing circles. Concern dripped from her voice as she said, “Breathe, Luz. Don’t panic. I know this is scary for you, but you’ll get through it. No, _we’ll_ get through it together. We’ll figure this out one step at a time.”

“We always survive crazy adventures together, Luz!” King supportively told her. He curled up on her lap and affectionally patted her legs. “This’ll be no different. You’ve got the Owl Lady and the King of Demons by your side. Figuring out how to be undead will be a piece of cake with us helping you along the way!”

Gradually, Luz’s breathing slowed to a normal tempo. She shut her eyes and rested her head against Eda’s side. Just for now, she didn’t want to see her stitches or focus on her pounding heartbeat.

If she blocked out everything but the low humming of Eda and King’s gentle snores, she could almost pretend that things were normal again.

* * *

Luz was home once again.

Nothing looked or felt right. Everything beyond her yard was covered in a thick fog. Eerie red clouds dominated the skies. Her home was in shambles – windows were shattered, the railings were rusted and fraying, and the sidings were worn away or flat-out missing.

Her mother stood on the porch facing her. Rather, she _cowered_ at the sight of Luz.

“Get away!” Camilia shrieked, fearfully crawling back from her.

“Mom, it’s me! It’s Luz!”

She tried to step closer, but her mother cried out in terror.

“Don’t get any closer! I don’t know you!”

Luz could barely choke back a hurt gasp. “Yes, you do! I’m Luz, remember?”

Camilia only shrunk back in response. “Don’t go using her name, you monster! My poor Luz has been dead for years!”

She felt her throat tighten. Her mother’s words stabbed through her heart worse than any spike could. “I’m not a…Mom, please…”

“Hey! Leave the woman alone, you freak!”

Luz whirled around to find a grey, faceless mass of people surrounding her house. Their faces were hidden by shadows, but she could still see the malevolent grins they wore. Sneers and contemptuous jabs filled the air.

“Look at how gross it is!”

“I can’t believe that creature would terrorize that poor woman…”

“Ew, look at those stitches. Is it oozing or something?”

Luz wilted under every snide remark. She looked down at her arms…and, to her horror, there was some viscous black fluid leaking from her sewn-up injuries. She frantically tried wiping it off, only for more to spill out. Laughter and sounds of disgust echoed all around her.

It was too much for her. First her mother couldn’t recognize her, and now she had to stomach this public humiliation?

“I’m not…I swear, I’m not a monster!” Luz pleaded with the crowd. “You have to believe me!”

Distracted by the hurtful taunts of the crowd, Luz barely noticed Camilia run by her into the mass of people. Panic overtook Luz as she chased after her.

“Mom! Please, come back!”

Luz pushed through the mob, shoving her way onto the street – until there wasn’t any street in sight. A white void surrounded her, with her only other companion being Camilia, who was hurriedly fleeing from her in the distance.

“No! Wait up, I can explain all of this! I’m still your daughter! I’m still Luz!”

Her mother was becoming a faint blip on the horizon. No matter how hard Luz pushed herself, Camilia faded further away. As her mother began to disappear in the distance, Luz broke into a desperate sprint. No amount of speed brought her closer. When her legs finally gave out, she looked up to find that her mother had vanished. She was all alone.

“ _Don’t leave me!_ ”

* * *

Luz flung herself out of her sheets with a start. She panted furiously, sweat soaking her pajamas. Madly looking around the room, she took in her surroundings. The nightmarish vision of her home and the void were gone. She was still in the Owl House. It had just been a bad dream.

The thought wasn’t much of a comfort to her. The nightmare had played out her fears vividly and frighteningly. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something similar would happen if she dared arrive home in this state.

She brought her knees close to her chest. Falling back asleep wasn’t an option. She was still too shaken up by her nightmare, and she worried that she would just have another bad dream anyway.

A nightmare hadn’t shaken her up this badly since kindergarten. Was she too old to be terrified by one? She didn’t know what the cut-off was for that sort of thing. It would’ve been nice to learn that in school… then again, given how no-nonsense her old school had been, the answer probably would’ve been something like, “At six months old, you big baby. Get your head out of those _Good Witch Azura_ books and go work on your spreadsheet assignment.”

…Okay, this self-deprecation was getting her nowhere. It was clear she couldn’t get over this on her own. Ordinarily, King would be a great help for conquering her fears, but he got real grouchy when his naps were interrupted. Hooty was absolutely out of the question – he would just give her _more_ nightmares with his creepily jovial stories of eating birds or licking doorknobs. That left only one other person she could talk to.

Changing into a new pair of pajamas, Luz quietly crept across the hall toward Eda’s room. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, so the trip through the house at night helped calm her somewhat. When things quieted down and all she could hear were bugs chirping, it was easy to forget that the Owl House was anything but a normal home. Living there for so long had desensitized her to its bizarre traits.

The door to Eda’s room creaked as it slowly opened. Luz peaked through the gap. Eda’s nest was empty, seemingly untouched by its owner. Moonlight streamed in from the open windows.

“Having trouble sleeping?”

Eda’s voice nearly made Luz stumble back in shock. The Owl Lady herself was still awake. She sat on the desk in front of her windows, her arms crossed in front of her. Her expression was tough to read in the darkness.

“Yeah. Can I…would you mind if-”

“-Of course you can come in,” Eda said, dismissing her concerns with a wave. “Just shut the door behind you. We shouldn’t wake King up this early.”

Luz followed her instructions. Anxious and unsure of what to do next, she pressed a hand on Eda’s dresser, only for it to give way and partially crack open. She flinched at the damage she had unintentionally caused.

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t trying to – let me make it up to you, I can-”

“-Luz. Take a deep breath. It’s okay.”

She let out a heavy sigh she hadn’t realized that she had been holding. Eda stood up from the desk and approached Luz. Resting both of her hands on the girl’s shoulders, she gently lowered the two of them onto the floorboards.

“I get it. This is a lot to absorb at once. It’ll take time for you to adjust to all of this, and you know what? I’m okay with that. I don’t care if you accidentally dent a wall or break a cup. I knew what I was getting into when I first started preparing that resurrection spell.”

Eda spoke in a soft, calming tone. It brought some relief to Luz, but it only opened more heartache as her thoughts returned to her nightmare.

“I’m not worried about breaking your stuff, Eda.” She caught herself and added, “I mean, I am, but that’s not what’s eating me up. I’m…” Swallowing down the lump in her throat, she whispered, “…I’m _scared_ , Eda.”

Eda looked into her eyes thoughtfully. “I meant what I said about you being welcome here, kiddo.”

“And I believe you! It’s just…how is everyone else going to react to me? People will be able to tell that I’m different now! What if they think I’m some kind of monster? What if Gus, Willow, and Amity are too frightened of me to be my friend? What if Hexside kicks me out for not being truly alive anymore? What about…” The next words were painful to get out. “…What about my mom? I could never go home looking like this! She would freak out and think I’m an evil demon or something, and everybody I knew would turn on me, and I’d be run out of town, and…and…”

Her catastrophic rambling was cut short when Eda cupped the sides of her head. There were fresh tears in her mentor’s eyes. In spite of that, she still smiled at Luz.

“It’s okay, Luz. You can let it all out.”

Unable to keep her emotions in check any longer, Luz finally broke down in Eda’s arms. The future was fear-inducing for her. She couldn’t see any situations where her life would go back to normal. All she could imagine was one disaster after another, with even her closest friends abandoning her.

“ _I don’t want to be alone,_ ” Luz desperately whimpered.

Eda tightened her grip around her. “You won’t be. You’ll never have to worry about being abandoned.”

“But…I…”

“Who cares if you’re a zombie? Have you seen what comes in and out of Hexside? You’d hardly be the first undead creature to go to classes there. And do you think someone as caring as Willow or loyal as Gus would avoid you because of how you look? Mark my words, they’re gonna be weeping and hugging you once they see you again.”

Luz’s sobbing began to slow down. Eda’s words were erasing some of the rainclouds hovering over her thoughts, though some still lingered.

“Still…Amity would-”

“Amity’s gonna be over the moon when you two reunite. Maybe you can work up the nerve to ask her out whenever that happens.” Eda smirked at Luz’s shocked expression. “Come on, don’t give me that. It’s obvious that you’re sweet on her! Willow and I had a bet going on about when you would confess to it. I guess I cheated a bit by telling you, though.”

The thought of Amity’s ecstatic reaction warmed her cheeks. She sniffled, wiping away the grime on her arm. “What about my mom, though?” she asked in a small voice. “She’s never seen real magic before. There’s no way she would take this well.”

“Then we’ll find a way to turn you fully human again! Or, we’ll figure out how to make you look like your old self. You’ve pulled off crazier things than that, haven’t you?”

Upon hearing Eda’s final words to her, the rainclouds within Luz dissipated. She was still shaken up by the panic attack and nightmare, but she had gained something crucial that she had lacked before: confidence. Eda’s reassurances helped her imagine her future without immediately assuming the worst. Her fears of abandonment seemed more irrational by the minute.

Once again, her mentor had helped her realize something important about herself that she wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Getting taken under Eda’s wing was probably the best thing to happen to her in years.

Luz had stopped crying. A bittersweet smile appeared on her face. The road ahead wouldn’t be easy, but she was starting to believe that it wouldn’t be horrible to travel. More importantly, she wouldn’t be going down it alone.

“Thank you, Eda. For bringing me back, and for cheering me up.” She squeezed Eda into another hug, careful not to overdo it with her newfound strength. “I…I love you so much.”

It was Eda’s turn to be shocked. Momentarily stunned by the confession, the witch grinned and petted Luz’s fluffy head of hair. “Love you too, Luz.”

Luz hesitated leaving Eda’s embrace. “Can I stay the night with you?”

“I’d be happy to have you here,” she responded, patting the open space around her nest. “Grab a spot wherever you’d like.”

The two settled together near the side of Eda’s nest. Luz found herself wrapped up in Eda’s arms, comforted by the warmth of her words and her affection. The nest itself was surprisingly pleasant to rest in, with its thick padding and soft lining. It was clearly meant for something more owl-like, but Luz found it just as soothing to be in as her old bed at home.

Not everything was perfect for her, but that was okay. She was surrounded by wonderful people who loved her no matter who she was. Just like Eda had told her, she would never have to worry about being alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love it when Luz looks up to Eda like a parental figure, or when Eda treats Luz like a daughter. Their family dynamic with King is adorable, and I think it's sweet how Eda warmed up to Luz over the course of season 1.
> 
> For reference, I don't think that Camilia is a bad mother or would turn on Luz that easily. The sequence at their house is meant to show what Luz is afraid of, not necessarily what would happen if she returned while undead.


	5. A Line Held

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, at the final chapter of the story! I have been shocked by the feedback and support from readers. I didn't expect for this to blow up so much! Your kudos, comments, bookmarks, and visits have been very encouraging for me! :)
> 
> On that note, the very talented Khonoodles drew some fanart of Luz waking up from her nightmare in chapter 4! You can check it out on their Twitter page here: https://twitter.com/Khonoodles/status/1350548577731244032?s=19

In the aftermath of her duel with Eda, rumors swirled about Lilith’s fate. In hushed voices, citizens of Bonesburough speculated on what became of the leader of the Emperor’s Coven. Some said that she had been personally petrified by Emperor Belos himself and left as an example to others inside his throne room. Others suggested that she resigned from the coven in shame and went off on a journey of penance and self-discovery. A cynical few believed that Belos rewarded her handsomely for putting her life on the line and showing that thievery would not be tolerated on the castle’s grounds.

Regardless of the reason, Lilith had vanished from the public eye entirely. Luz had no inkling of what had become of her. Eda also had nothing but theories, though she sounded unenthusiastic about running into her sister again. Frankly, Luz was in the same boat as her. Whether or not she meant to do it, Lilith had given her a grisly death. She would prefer to avoid her; any apologies could be given to Luz indirectly.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like she would have to worry about that. Before carrying Luz off to school on her staff, Eda had promised that she wouldn’t let her sister get close to her again. If Lilith so much as _looked_ at Luz the wrong way, Eda had promised, she would send her back mangled to Emperor Belos as a warning.

Not for the first time, Luz had been grateful that Eda was on her side. She couldn’t imagine going up against someone as powerful or crafty as the Owl Lady.

Riding over to Hexside on Eda’s staff was as thrilling as ever. As dangerous as the Boiling Isles were, they were also vibrant and beautiful. Coasting over the rooftops allowed Luz to see things she would’ve missed on the ground, like the multitude of demons wandering the streets or her fellow witches making their way to classes.

Eda landed her staff near the entrance steps to the school. Before Luz could hop off, she affectionately ruffled the girl’s hair. “You’ll knock ‘em dead, kiddo. Living or not, you’ve got people here ready to welcome you back with open arms.”

Luz laughed sheepishly at her comment. Dismounting from the staff, she said back, “You’re right. I bet I’ll have some stories to tell when I get back home.”

Eda glanced over at the now-open doors to Hexside. “Speaking of which…well, don’t let me hold you up. Have a nice day back.”

Just as the witch took off, Luz found two familiar people standing in the doorway, mouths agape at what they were seeing. A bagged lunch dropped onto the chiseled steps into the school.

“… _Luz?_ ” Willow gasped in disbelief.

“You’re…so you aren’t really…” Gus stammered out.

Luz self-consciously blushed. “Alive? Um…kind of? Eda called me ‘living dead,’ which I’m guessing is the nice way of saying-”

Both Willow and Gus crashed into her with a full-force hug, sending all three students onto the grass in a heap. It took a moment for Luz to get her focus back, but when she did, it became clear to her that both of her friends were crying.

“We heard that you _died!_ ” Willow sobbed, messily wiping her nose. “I locked myself in my room all weekend! I thought I’d never see you again!”

“The Human Appreciation Club…” Gus sniffled loudly. “…It never would’ve been the same without its number one fact-checker! And Hexside would’ve been miserable without you!”

Eda had been right. Her friends hadn’t turned on her, even knowing what she had become. The thought brightened Luz’s spirits further.

“Aw, you guys…” Luz began.

“Don’t you _ever_ go dying on us again!” Gus cried, trying weakly to salvage his image. “If you do, I swear I’ll summon you back just to nag you about it!”

It took some time, but the two eventually calmed down enough to stop the waterworks and release Luz from their bear hug. Despite their mutual breakdowns, the two looked happier than ever now.

Willow brushed the grass off her pant legs. “We should celebrate. It isn’t often that your best friend comes back from the dead...”

“Hey, I thought _I_ was your best friend!” Gus protested, pouting adorably at Willow.

“Oh, come on.” Willow patted his head reassuringly. “You know you’re my best friend, too. Like my dads told me, you shouldn’t have to play favorites with your friends!”

Luz smiled at their antics. Things hadn’t changed at all. “Hey, I’d be down for a nice, chill party after all that trauma! No conjurings, though. Who’s up for a good old-fashioned sleepover, just like humans do it?”

Gasping loudly, Gus pressed his hands against his cheeks. “You mean with junk food? And scary stories? And no sleeping – which is pretty weird, considering what it’s called – until the crack of dawn?”

“You bet! And who better to host it than…”

Luz’s train of thought came to a screeching halt. A certain green and brown-haired witch walked into her line of sight and froze. As if she had seen a ghost, she did a double-take and stared flabbergasted at Luz. Her schoolbag nearly slipped free from her arms.

Nervously, Luz raised a hand in greeting. “Hi, Amity.”

Amity nearly stumbled onto her back. Her face glowed red and her eyes were practically as wide as dinner plates. She exhaled a panicked breath. She glanced rapidly between Luz, her friends, and the door to Hexside. Without saying another word, she bolted inside the school, tripping over herself as she ascended the stairs.

Luz’s stomach instantly dropped. Had Eda been wrong? Was she too different now, and had that scared off Amity after all?

Gus only watched the entire exchange with confusion, but as Eda had said, Willow seemed to pick up on the tension between Luz and Amity. With surprising force, she pushed Luz in the direction of Hexside’s entrance.

“Go after her!” Willow told Luz. “You need to talk to her as badly as she needs to hear from you! If you don’t do it before classes start, you’ll never be able to focus!”

Willow’s comments bolstered her flagging spirits somewhat. Thanking her, Luz ran into the halls of Hexside in pursuit of Amity. Following her trail, she passed by other students, who didn’t seem to pay her much mind. She caught a glimpse of Amity fleeing to the back of the school and chased after her, nearly bowling over Principal Bump in the process.

“Luz, glad to have you back!” he exclaimed. “I always knew you were a hard worker, but this takes the cake! Not even death could stop you from coming to classes!”

This was no time for small talk. As nice as it was to hear his compliments, Luz needed to keep after Amity. “Thank you, Principal Bump, but – uh – I’m in a hurry. Yeah, my abomination got loose, and I need to dispel it before it gets into the boys locker room again!”

“Ooh, teenage drama!” Bump exclaimed, tenting his fingers together in a sign of keen interest. “Don’t let me hold you up. We’ve had enough abomination incidents to report for one year!”

Tracking Amity wasn’t too hard. She knew the girl’s study habits well, and if there was one place she liked to retreat to for peace and quiet, it was the school’s garden. Luz raced down the back hallways of Hexside and burst through the double doors outside. She owed it to herself and to Amity to clear the air between them.

Luz just hoped that the girl she dearly cared for would give her a chance to explain herself.

* * *

“Amity! Please come out, I just want to talk!”

Hands clutched against her pounding chest, Amity squatted further behind the hedges of Hexside’s garden. Luz’s voice carried loudly over her head – which shouldn’t be possible, because she was dead, Lilith had murdered her, everyone had heard the news, _so how was she wandering around school alive and well?_

As Luz took her first steps into the garden, Amity retreated inside the bushes, ignoring their prickly branches or the intimidating bugs that were nestled along their leaves. She needed space. This was too much to take in at once. She had spent the weekend grieving for the girl she had loved, only for her to just _show up_ at the start of the following school week. None of it made any sense!

Her first thought was that she had been tricked by her brother and sister. They could had played some cruel prank on her, waiting for her to freak out when she inevitably came across Luz again. However, she quickly dismissed the idea. Edric and Emira liked their practical jokes, but they were never vicious about them. They wouldn’t break her heart just for a laugh.

“Where are you, Amity?” Luz called out again, wandering by a statue of Emperor Belos surrounded by vibrant flowers.

Amity noticed how odd her voice sounded, like what she was saying was being echoed in a deeper tone. From her vantage point, she could also see some strange things about Luz’s appearance. Part of her face had a paler color than usual, and one of her eyes was now green. What looked like stitches surrounded the blotchy skin. In fact, it seemed like there were more stitches leading into Luz’s uniform sleeves and collar.

Possibility number two: rumors had gotten mixed up. People had heard that Luz had gotten hurt, and through word-of-mouth and gossiping, it eventually came out as “Luz flat-out died.” It would explain her strange injuries and the fact that she was, well, _alive_ now. But even that theory didn’t account for Luz’s strange voice change, Lilith’s disappearance, or Luz’s absence throughout the weekend. Which only left one more theory she could buy into…

“I’m not scaring you, am I, Amity?” Luz’s voice was sounding desperate. “Please tell me you’re not scared of me!”

…Luz had actually died during the trip. Somehow, she had been brought back from the dead – presumably by Eda – and was walking around as a zombie now.

Luz’s searching became sloppier and more frantic. Amity badly wanted to reach out to her, to let her know where she was, but she held herself back. She wasn’t scared of Luz. Sure, her new voice would take some getting used to, as would her altered face, but those were minor details in the grand scheme of things. What she was scared of were her parents – and how they would react to this sudden development.

It was no secret that Amity’s parents expected the best of her. She was to excel in everything she did, right down to choosing her friends. Defying them in the past had brought on harsh punishments and discipline…so how would they react when their “Little Miss Perfect” admitted to not only crushing on a girl, but a human girl? No, scratch that, an _undead_ human girl? They would think she had lost her mind! She wouldn’t be shocked if they had her committed to the Conformatorium for opening up about that.

Getting together with Luz would mean ending her period of goodwill with her parents. Edric and Emira would still stand by her, but that wouldn’t do any good if she was disowned. They wouldn’t be able to talk her parents into rethinking things, even if they threatened to walk away from the family as well. Not to mention, Lilith being absent meant that another pillar of support in her life was gone.

Amity watched as Luz sat in front of the statue. Her expression was downcast, and she was idly nudging around insects crawling along the brick pathway.

“Maybe Eda was wrong…maybe Amity won’t like me anymore…”

Seeing Luz in such despair brought Amity back to a few days earlier, when she had been crying herself to sleep in her room. She thought of how miserable she had been believing that she would never see the girl she loved again.

_You almost missed your chance to tell her how you felt. Are you gonna let that slip away again?_

_You’re just a pretty thing for your parents to show off. They don’t actually care how you feel. Why else would they have told you to abandon Willow?_

_Luz is right there waiting for her fearless champion to rescue her from misery. What would Azura do in your situation?_

Everything clicked for Amity. She knew what she had to do.

“It’s okay, Luz. I’m not afraid of you.”

Emerging from the bushes – with groans and complaints from how scratchy it was – Amity made her presence known to Luz. The other girl let out a frightened squeak and nearly toppled back onto the flowers, only stopping her momentum by hurling herself forward. Her shoes skidded against the brickwork as she almost crashed into Amity instead.

The two girls only stood a few feet apart from one another. Amity could practically feel the heat emanating from Luz’s face.

“So…you don’t think I’m some kind of monster?” Luz asked. She shyly rubbed the back of her neck and averted her stare from Amity.

“No! Like, sure, this might take some getting used to, but I’m not afraid of you. You’re different, but you’re still you.” She blinked in confusion and muttered to herself, “That sounded a lot more understandable in my head.”

Luz’s face flushed in apparent relief. “That’s awesome! I was worried how you would react to all this. It would’ve been tough losing you as a friend.”

 _Friend._ There was that dreaded word again. If she didn’t make a move now, she’d risk staying as that term forever. Rolling up her sleeves, she prepared to come clean to Luz about how she felt.

“Luz, I-”

“-Amity, I’ve been meaning to tell you-”

The two girls cut themselves short. “You go first,” they said in unison. “No, you. Whatever you’re gonna say is more important.” Both became tongue-tied in an effort to not talk over the other. Their cheeks burning, Amity and Luz continued their stare-off, neither willing to speak up before the other.

Amity grunted in annoyance. If this kept up, she might just pass out from her frustration! Why were words so complicated at times like these? Why couldn’t she just…

…Do what she meant…

Before she could second-guess herself, Amity pulled Luz into a tight hug and rested her chin on Luz’s shoulder. Both girls blushed profusely at the sudden show of affection.

“What…are you…”

Don’t think, Amity told herself. Just say the first thing that comes to mind.

“I like you a lot, okay! You’re so brave and caring and cute that I can’t take it sometimes! You drive me crazy with your weird antics that make me love you even more! I want to hold your hand or dance with you again or, I don’t know, do something else romantic with you! I don’t care if you’re undead now, because you’re still the same girl that I care about! You’re so much more than a friend to me, but I was never able to get that through to you, so I’m just spouting off things before I can filter them!” Panting, she exclaimed one more time, “Luz Noceda! I. Like. You. As. More. Than. A. Friend! _Do you get it now?_ ”

Amity had to take deep breaths or risk passing out from her nonstop ranting. The realization of what she had just said hit her like a grudgby ball to the face. There was no turning back now. She had poured out her feelings to Luz, and nothing could undo that.

Nervously, Amity pulled herself away from Luz at a snail’s pace. She wasn’t certain what to expect from the other girl’s reaction. She was almost afraid that it would ruin their friendship. What if Luz didn’t swing that way? She hadn’t braced herself for a harsh rejection like that.

It became clear that Luz was as stunned at Amity’s outburst as Amity was at herself. For a moment, neither girl dared speak up. Amity could feel the slow, drum-like beating of her anxious heart.

“You mean…you love me back?”

Truthfully, Amity hadn’t braced herself for _that_ reaction, either. “Y-yeah.” She gulped and added, “I do.”

She hadn’t seen it coming. In an instant, Luz started giggling like a madwoman and dancing around gleefully. She twirled Amity like she had during their Grom Night dance, laughing as tears of joy started escaping her closed eyes. Amity found herself joining in with Luz’s laughter as they swirled and swayed to the rhythm of their mutual love.

Luz held her close, just as she had in their moonlit battle against Grom. The weight of her hand on Amity’s hip was warm and comforting. Their hands were tightly linked, and Amity had her spare hand wrapped around the back of Luz’s head. They held each other’s loving stares.

“I’m so glad I met you,” Luz joyfully whispered.

“You’re not the only one,” Amity told her girlfriend. “No matter what happens next, we’ll get through it together.”

Their dance continued until the first period bell started ringing. They broke apart from each other slowly and reluctantly, but they were confident they would share another dance soon enough. Hand-in-hand, they happily walked back into Hexside together, unafraid of whatever challenges might face them.

Amity didn’t care what her classmates or her parents would think. Girl, human, undead…Luz was still Luz to her. She occupied a dear place in Amity’s heart. If people had an issue with that, then it was their problem, not hers.

She would find a new mentor to look up to. Maybe she would make things simpler and train under Eda. After all, they would be seeing a lot more of each other in the near future. Luz would easily vouch for her skills and dedication. And if becoming Eda’s apprentice meant spending more time with Luz, who was she to protest?

Before heading off to different classes, Luz pressed a quick kiss against Amity’s forehead. Amity blushed harder, barely able to stammer out a goodbye before Luz disappeared from sight. Alone in Hexside’s halls, she let out a long, dreamy sigh.

Yep, things were definitely looking up for both of them. They would conquer whatever problems that the Boiling Isles dared throw at them, and they would do it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading A Line Crossed! I hope you enjoyed this emotional rollercoaster of a story. Writing it was a valuable experience for me. Most of all, I'm glad readers have been entertained by it. 
> 
> Since the question has come up, I wanted to note that I don't have any plans to continue the story. However, I am okay with people using the story or general concept for their own fanfictions! It's totally fine by me if you want to write your own continuation of A Line Crossed.
> 
> The next chapter is just a fun little epilogue that doesn't really add to the overall plot involving Luz. It was suggested by a commenter, and I thought it was too good of an idea to pass up.


	6. Bonus Chapter: Special Delivery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short, more comedic epilogue that answers a solid question: "What if Hooty hadn't stopped at getting a witch's eye and skin, and had plopped down a whole body down for Eda?" Well, now you know!

No matter what day of the week it was, things never truly settled down around the Owl House. Eda knew this fact all too well. Even when she wasn’t running scams or hawking human artifacts at her stalls, trouble had a way of finding her. There was always some new crisis to confront.

The peaceful afternoon Eda and King had been enjoying on the living room sofa was interrupted by Hooty swinging open the front door. Wearing a conspicuous smile, he stretched close to the pair and got up in their faces.

“Got some more organs for you, Eda!” Hooty happily declared. “Some assembly is required on this one, hoot hoot!”

Eda slapped the side of her own face. “We’ve been over this, Hooty, that was a one-time thing. With Luz back, I’m out of the organ business for…good…”

A large, person-sized bump rolled through Hooty’s tube-like body, startling Eda and snapping King out of his daydreaming. With a few forceful coughs, the owl demon spat out a girl in a Hexside uniform. Her hair was a pinkish-red color, and her uniform had the yellow arms and legs of a Potions student.

“…Did you seriously eat a Hexside student?” Eda asked in disbelief.

Hooty nodded enthusiastically. “I only get the best stuff for my friends! Now Luz will have so many parts to choose from!”

“But Luz doesn’t need-”

“-Who cares about Luz’s share?” King cut in. “This girl’s on our turf, so she belongs to us now!” He raised the unknown student’s head and slapped it around a few times. “You can take whatever pieces you want from her, but save the brain for me! I’ll make her the first member of my brainwashed army of cyborg witches!”

The girl groaned, blinking slowly a few times. Eda noticed that the girl had _three_ eyes, one of which was in the center of her forehead. Based on what Luz had told her about her time at Hexside, she finally recognized who was laying in a pile of slobber on her floor.

“Are you Boscha?” Eda asked, helping her onto her feet. King growled in protest, apparently peeved about losing his newest recruit.

The girl wobbled a bit on her feet. Her half-open eyes glanced around the living room. “Is…is it gone?” she fearfully said aloud. “Did that thing puke me out, or did it swallow me for good?”

Suddenly, Hooty stretched close to Boscha. The girl squealed and ducked behind Eda for protection. “Oh, you’d know if I swallowed you!” he commented. “My stomach is a magical place where good bugs go to die! It’s like a water park, only with boiling acid on the rides!”

Alright, Eda admitted to herself, Hooty was getting _too_ creepy even for her. A quick spell pushed him back into the door and slammed it shut. She heard him let out an annoyed _hoot_ before getting distracted by a passing fly.

That left the matter of the girl. Eda didn’t know her too well, but she figured that a trip inside Hooty’s weird physiology would unsettle anyone. As much as she hated being the responsible one, she couldn’t just leave Boscha cowering and wet in her house.

“So…um, do you need me to get your folks to pick you up, kid?”

From behind her, Boscha handed Eda her scroll. She tightly clutched the sides of Eda’s dress, still refusing to come out in the open.

“Yeah,” Boscha mumbled. “And call my therapist. Tell him he’s gonna become a rich man real soon.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Too Much, Too Late](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26677663) by [TheHonestyBird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHonestyBird/pseuds/TheHonestyBird)




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